§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence underlay his Department's statement that the prohibition of tobacco advertising would reduce consumption by 2.5 per cent. [4245]
§ Yvette CooperEvidence as to the effect of tobacco advertising on tobacco consumption was reviewed by the Department's Chief Economic Adviser in the Smee Report, published in 1992. The evidence has since been reviewed from time to time. The advice is that the likely eventual net effect of an advertising ban would be to decrease tobacco consumption, and the size of the decrease could lie in a range up to about 5 per cent. It is reasonable to use the mid-point of this range to indicate the likely effects of a ban.
Other recent work supports the view that comprehensive advertising bans are likely to reduce tobacco consumption. A report from the World Bank1 suggests that implementation of Directive 98/43/EC could have reduced cigarette consumption within the European Union by nearly 7 per cent.
1 Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control. 1999 ISBN 9 780821 345191